MILL CREEK — A project by the Snohomish County PUD will improve the reliability of electrical service in the Mill Creek Country Club area.
The utility this fall is replacing old underground power lines and installing new concrete vaults for switching and routing facilities along a half-mile of roadway, including Village Green Drive from Mill Creek Road to 23rd Lane SE (Springtree), and also along the length of Country Club Drive.
Some of the feeder cable there — which also serves as a back-up to surrounding substations when they are out of service — failed in recent months.
Underground systems like these often reach the end of their useful life during dryer summer months, said Steve Stangvik, a PUD engineer.
The work is expected to total about $440,000.
In all, the PUD expects to spend about $6 million this year on similar efforts to replace or rejuvenate cable systems. Most of this year’s work is on cables like the ones in Mill Creek, which were manufactured and installed between 1965 and 1981 — before manufacturing improved.
More new housing developments are installing power lines underground, Stangvik said. The percentage of underground lines is now at 45 percent in the PUD service area.
Like overhead power lines, though, underground lines also degrade over time and need maintenance and replacement.
Almost all underground cable systems are eventually connected to an overhead system, Stangvik added, “and see the same reliability as the customers served from the overhead circuit they are attached to.”
Electrical line work could start in mid-September on the Mill Creek project. The project is expected to take about eight weeks. Fall storms could delay work.
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